THIS BLOG OPPOSES DRACONIAN LAWS & POLITICAL SCAPEGOATING BY SOME POLITICIANS! * THE PUNISHMENT IS THE CRIME * FOR A WORLD WITHOUT VIOLENCE * WHERE DOES THAT COME FROM? * A) DALAI LAMA: "LOVE, PEACE AND KINDNESS YOU CAN'T BREAK IT." * B) FREDERICK NIETZSCHE: "LOVE YOUR ENEMY." * THERE IS ALSO FORGIVENESS BUT YOU DON'T GET THE COMPLETE PROTECTION UNLESS YOU ACCEPT BOTH OF THE A & B CONDITIONS * & FOR THAT YOU MUST COME TO TERMS WITH C) FORGIVENESS * :-)

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

US: Before becoming an Ohio State Penitentiary physician, Dr. Ayham Haddad experienced a different side of incarceration as a political prisoner in Syria. After being arrested, tortured, and released, Haddad immigrated to the United States to begin a new life.

Now a general practitioner at Ohio's only supermax, located off state Route 616 in Youngstown, Haddad has a comparative perspective few could imagine. The doctor is amazed to find that certain human rights issues aren't being taken more seriously in the U.S. "In Syria, I was in solitary confinement for four months," Haddad reflected. "But here, prisoners are kept in solitary confinement for years!"

On June 13, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy expressed a similar concern, finding that "conditions at [the Ohio State Penitentiary] are more restrictive than any other form of incarceration in Ohio, including conditions on its death row." Kennedy also noted a holding policy that retained prisoners "for an indefinite period of time, limited only by an inmate's sentence."

Kennedy was referring here to the fact that Ohio supermax prisoners are disqualified from eligibility for parole. After surveying 26 out of 30 states operating supermax prisons, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights found that only Ohio and Maine were making this exception.

In 2002, when the two civil rights groups took the state of Ohio to court, the Ohio State Penitentiary had been operating for 3 years, and 200 of its prisoners had been in solitary confinement for more than three years. In most states, at least some of these prisoners would have qualified for parole.

The story of Kunta Kenyatta is a case in point. While serving a sentence at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, the Cleveland native became eligible for parole in 2002. But after being transferred to the newly opened Ohio State Penitentiary, in 1998, his parole was indefinitely suspended. "If I hadn't sued to get out of there, I would have been there until 2016," said Kenyatta, who served 16 years for a crime committed in his youth.

It is the idea of indefinite detention that troubled Haddad most. "I love America," he told me over a glass of Arak. "But you can punish people and put them in the hole for a month or two. You can't put them in solitary confinement for five years!" The doctor shook his head in disbelief.

Kenyatta was paroled in November 2002 following a successful class action suit that challenged the legitimacy of his transfer. The soft-spoken man whose African name meant "the musician" said the prison administration had sent him to the penitentiary for having been a political disturbance. Kenyatta had dreadlocks, political books such as the works of Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela, and he was helping other prisoners to legally change their names. "They accused me of trying to form an unauthorized group, which to them made me one of the worst of the worst."

Breeding violent fantasies

At the Youngstown supermax, prisoners are locked in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, in bleak concrete cells measuring 7*_b-11 feet. Each cell has a sink and toilet, a small desk, a concrete stool, a concrete slab with a thin mattress, and a slim rectangular window.

The idea of living in a concrete box without knowing how long you'll remain there is known to create trauma symptoms similar to those experienced by hostages: anxiety, headaches, lethargy, insomnia, nervous breakdowns, perspiring hands, and heart palpitations.

According to Craig Haney, a psychology professor at the University of California, prisoners often begin experiencing these effects after ten days in solitary confinement. Haney concluded that supermax incarceration also greatly undermined a prisoner's prospects for successful reentry into society.

Kenyatta said he'd have lost all psychological balance if not for his pen-pals and books. "It's really stressful, and often times you explode and get mad." He recalled how illiterate inmates were hit the hardest. "They were basically cut off from the world. So some of them started smearing feces in their faces, or taking it out on their cell doors."

Even the most resilient individuals carry the scars of solitary confinement long after being released. Now, two years later, Kenyatta keeps his Canton home meticulously tidy, and has said it would be difficult to imagine living with anyone else.

Ohio's Abu Ghraib?

The lawyer and historian Staughton Lynd said he wasn't surprised to hear reports that prisoners of war [and scapegoats and patsies] in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib were victims of torture and other human rights violations. He could imagine this treatment being an extension of patterns he'd observed at maximum-security prisons in the U.S.

"What this country learns to do to the 2 million people in its prisons, it has extended to other people all over the world," Lynd said. "And of course, it does so easily, because these people are very often of dark skin."

The retired attorney lives in a small bungalow in Niles, from which he and his wife Alice are leading the fight to humanize supermax prisons. Their work is inspired by their advocacy of civil rights. In the 1960s, Staughton Lynd was the director of the Mississippi Freedom Schools and also taught history to black students at Spellman College.

The Lynds worked as labor lawyers when the steel mills shut down in Youngstown. When they closed, the prisons came, and the two lawyers realized that regulating them would be their next struggle.

During a May 21 public tour of the 500-bed facility, the Ohio State Penitentiary's spokesperson, Keith Fletcher, said that one shouldn't forget that a supermax was "not a spa." And although prisoners there were the "worst of the worst," they still received television, medical coverage, and the option of a vegetarian menu. The supermax prison was also air-conditioned with "tempered air." During the tour, Fletcher downplayed solitary confinement's effects.

Noting that the United Nations mandates that all prisoners have access to fresh air, I wondered whether the supermax's "tempered air system" violated this mandate, and attempted to ask the Ohio State Penitentiary warden, Marc Houk, about the issue. However, the spokesperson informed me that Houk was "not entertaining interview requests at this time relative to living conditions."

The design for supermax prisons originally emerged in the 1970s in response to an increase in prison violence nationwide. In the social climate of the Reagan years, legislators began favoring the idea of isolating troublemakers in expensive new high-security facilities as they also cut funding for rehabilitation programs. By 1997, 45 states and the District of Columbia as well as the federal prison system were operating super-maximum prisons.

But in the mid-1990s, the supermaxes became the subject of an increasing number of lawsuits and human rights protests. Prisoners and their attorneys reported a rise in the routine use of stun belts, stun guns and restraint chairs. It was at this time that the battle against Ohio's only supermax prison began.

Humanizing the hole

In January 2001, Charles Austin and 28 other prisoners filed a lawsuit claiming that Ohio had violated their Eighth Amendment rights. The prisoners argued that medical and psychiatric care and recreation were inadequate at the supermax, and physical restraints were too harsh. Prisoners received medical injections through their narrow food slots, for example, and had both hands handcuffed to the wall during medical exams.

In February 2002, the plaintiffs won a significant legal victory when a federal district court ruled that the state must follow strict due-process guidelines before sending prisoners to the supermax. The number of inmates dropped significantly after a court-ordered review of individual cases determined that two-thirds of the prisoners did not meet the criteria for such restrictive confinement. "The supermax was built to hold approximately 450 prisoners," Lynd said. "There are now roughly 250. So, you can say we've very nearly cut the population in half."

The state of Ohio is looking for a way to fill those empty cells. In March, officials announced plans to move Ohio's death row from Mansfield to Youngstown. The $157 daily cost per inmate would drop if the facility were filled, state officials argued. Specific details have not been disclosed.

The ACLU has filed legal action to block the transfer of about 200 death row inmates. The hearing is set for Aug. 18 before U.S. District Judge James Gwin. ACLU lawyers will argue that the wholesale transfer of an entire category of prisoners violates the concept of individualized hearings.

Lynd, who works as counsel for the ACLU on the case, said he believes the relocation of death row prisoners to Youngstown would lead to a deterioration of their mental health, more suicides and an increase in requests to "volunteer" for execution.

After once meeting with a supermax client who'd been handcuffed with his arms behind his back for 2_ hours, the attorney remembered sharing his gut response to the incident with his wife: "Give me a teaspoon, so I can start tearing this place down."

Daniel Sturm teaches journalism at Youngstown State University in Northeastern Ohio. He is a German journalist who covers underreported social and political topics in Europe and in the United States.

Two Million Imprisoned = Too ManyOn August 13, thousands of people from around the nation are expected to march in a "Journey for Justice" to our nation's capitol. Times have certainly changed since the 1963 civil rights march on Washington, but this year's march still has everything to do with what many view as institutionalized racism.

Isolation at prisons should be eliminatedBIA (Istanbul) - "Health conditions at prisons should be improved and isolation should be eliminated," said the Istanbul Chamber of Physicians. "The complaints of the families of inmates are worrying." Calling on the government to cooperate with local physicians chambers.

Association for the Prevention of TortureWhat needs to be done now? The Optional Protocol requires 20 ratifications to enter into force. All States Parties to the UN Convention against Torture should seriously consider ratifying the OPCAT as soon as possible. National Institutions and others promoting the human rights of people deprived of their liberty need to be informed of their potential role as national preventive mechanisms under the OPCAT.

CUBA: A letter to Amnesty USAI write as an Australian prisoners' rights campaigner who has been watching Amnesty's interventions over the arrests and jailing of several dozen "dissidents" in Cuba over the past two years. I have also visited Cuba on two occasions.

Unlock the Box:Unlock the Box is a product of many years of struggle to shut down the Security Housing Units in California. During this time, the United Front to Abolish the SHU was created as a forum to coordinate the actions of everyone involved in this campaign.

CIA defends terror suspect transfers?Suspected terrorists [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killings's resource wars in the Middle East] in US custody have been transferred to third countries for the past 20 years, CIA director Porter Goss told the US Senate armed services committee.

Noble Cause Torture?AUSTRALIA: The Labor Party has decided not to support a Senate inquiry into new allegations made by Mamdouh Habib that the Australian Government cooperated with Egyptian intelligence authorities who he insists tortured him.

Detention Centres, Solitary ConfinementOn Friday night the NSW Council for Civil Liberties awarded Sydney solicitor John Marsden honorary life membership. Julian Burnside was invited to make the speech in Marsden's honour. In the course of his speech, Burnside referred to the unregulated use of solitary confinement in Australia's immigration detention centres, criticising it as inhumane and also as unlawful.

Deaths in isolation as prison segregation increasesThe use of segregation [solitary confinement] of prisoners as punishment has been increasing recently in Australia, the US, and the UK. Segregation can be used for protection or punishment, but in both cases it results in extreme psychological stress. An indication that segregation is being over-used is the appearance of deaths in custody from suicide of those placed in segregation.

Fascist Australian Govt torture exposedThe fascist Federal Government has been exposed for the torture of Australian Mamdouh Habib and the US Government's allegations against him (if they were true) would have been made under duress.

Downer won't press US for 'torture' report?The Australian Government says it has tried and failed so far to get a copy of a report by the International Red Cross which claims psychological and physical coercion of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba?

UK solitary confinementUK: Segregation units are prisons within prisons - the places where the most unchecked brutality is meted out to prisoners. In recent years conditions in high security segregation units have deteriorated, and the use of long-term segregation as a control mechanism has increased.

Torture, the British wayGreat to be British, isn't it? Time was, we were really uptight, but now we can talk about anything - sex, religion, politics. No matter how personal and complex the subject, we'll discuss it with Richard and Judy, or slap our private Polaroids of it on our websites. Which leaves me puzzled about our silence, even shyness, over this whole torture thing.

Abu Ghraib inquiry slams Aust GovernmentA US inquiry into the Iraqi prison abuse scandal has been highly critical of Australian, Major George O'Kane, for glossing over early warnings about the treatment of detainees.

There is no justification for tortureIn the weeks since the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison were revealed, evidence continues to seep out of similar mistreatment of prisoners in other US military detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.

Abu Ghraib, USAWhen I first saw the photo, taken at the Abu Ghraib prison, of a hooded and robed figure strung with electrical wiring, I thought of the Sacramento, California, city jail.

On Solitary ConfinementThere has been much written about solitary confinement by some of the world's leading psychiatrists, but very little written by victims of solitary themselves. I believe that the 32 years I have spent in solitary qualifies me for the task.

Prisoner's identity concealed to prevent Red Cross accessUS Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, acting at the request of the CIA, ordered that a suspected Iraqi insurgent leader be detained off the books to conceal his identity from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Pentagon has confirmed.

US has secret prisons: rights groupThe United States is holding terrorism suspects in more than two dozen detention centres worldwide, about half of which operate in total secrecy, according to a new human rights report.

Prisoner Abuse Not Just in IraqThe shocking revelations of abuse of prisoners by US prison guards in Iraq have been denounced by politicians around the world, including our own Prime Minister.

Belmarsh detainees consider suicide, says freed manUK: The first of the Muslim detainees released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism has told the Guardian his fellow prisoners are suffering such severe mental problems that they constantly consider suicide.

Maoist Internationalist MovementMarch 6 -- Protesters took to the streets in cities across the state of California to demand California prisons shut down the Security Housing Units (SHU). Like other control unit prisons across the country, the SHU are prisons within a prison. They are solitary confinement cells where prisoners are locked up 23 hours a day for years at a time. The one hour a day these prisoner sometimes get outside of their cell is spent alone in an exercise pen not much larger than their cell, with no direct sunlight.

Report on State Prisons Cites Mental IllnessNEW YORK: Nearly one of every four New York State prisoners who are kept in punitive segregation [solitary confinement], confined to a small cell at least 23 hours a day are mentally ill, according to a new report by a nonprofit group that has been critical of state prison policies.

Solitary Confinement: Mental illness in prisonsIt is well established that sensory deprivation can produce major psychological effects on humans including perceptual distortions, visual, auditory, and olfactory illusions, vivid fantasies often accompanied by striking hallucinations, derealization experiences, and hyper- responsivity to external stimuli.

Escape proof but not so the prisoners mindFewer prisoners escape from prison these days because they're "cemented in" by materials that do not break and by legislation that can keep prisoners in jail until they die.